**Honduran security forces are patrolling the area around Brazil’s embassy in the capital after clashes with supporters of ousted president Manuel Zelaya.**Mr Zelaya, who has taken refuge inside, accuses interim authorities of attempting to “asphyxiate” the embassy by cutting off supplies.
The embassy’s lights, water and phones have been cut off and the only contact is by cellphone, Brazilian media say.
Honduran authorities have demanded Mr Zelaya give himself up to face trial.
Mr Zelaya made a surprise return from exile on Monday nearly three months after being forced out of the country at gunpoint.
The US, Brazil and other governments have joined Mr Zelaya in calling for a negotiated settlement to the crisis.
‘Asphyxiation’
Security forces surrounded the embassy and used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse thousands of Mr Zelaya’s supporters early on Tuesday.
The demonstrators had defied a curfew imposed after Mr Zelaya made his dramatic appearance in the Brazilian embassy on Monday.
ANALYSIS
Gary Duffy, BBC News, Sao Paulo
The Brazilian authorities recognise that their staff in Honduras are caught up in a very delicate situation.The ambassador is back in Brazil, there is only a charge d’affaires and a very small team, with not much security. Lights, water and telephones were cut off on Monday and the only contact is by mobile phone, Brazilian media report. Power is only being maintained using a generator.
However, President Lula has expressed his complete support for Mr Zelaya and the ministry of foreign affairs here says he will not be asked to leave nor will he be handed over to the Honduran authorities.
The clear message from Brazil is that there has to be a negotiated solution to this crisis.
A protest leader, Juan Barahona, alleged that police had used live rounds, but this was robustly denied by the interim deputy foreign minister, Martha Lorena Alvarado.
Another supporter of Mr Zelaya, Guillermo Amador, said many people had been injured and detained, but there has been no official confirmation of this.
Inside the embassy, the lights, water and telephones were cut off on Monday and the only contact is by mobile phone, Brazilian media say. Reports suggest a generator is being used to provide electricity.
Some 70 supporters of Mr Zelaya are said to be inside, as well as embassy staff.
Mr Zelaya told Venezuelan broadcaster Telesur that interim authorities were cutting off all supplies to the embassy.
“I think they are going to employ a strategy of asphyxiating the embassy by surrounding it, cutting off the food supply, asphyxiating the people inside in order to demonstrate their force and power, and to try and humiliate the people in here who are really trying to find a solution, for dialogue at a national level,” he said.
TIMELINE: ZELAYA OUSTED
- 28 June: Zelaya forced out of country at gunpoint
- 5 July: A dramatic bid by Zelaya to return home by plane fails after the runway at Tegucigalpa airport is blocked
- 25-26 July: Zelaya briefly crosses into the country at the land border with Nicaragua on two consecutive days, in a symbolic move to demand he be allowed to return
- 21 Sept: Zelaya appears in the Brazilian embassy in Tegulcigalpa
Readers’ reaction from Honduras
In an interview with BBC Mundo Ms Alvarado, the interim deputy foreign minister, said the government expected “that in the next few hours Brazil would either hand him [Zelaya] over or grant him political asylum”.
Despite the international condemnation of the circumstances of Mr Zelaya’s removal from office, she said, “that does not permit any embassy to use its diplomatic territory… to urge a civil uprising”.
“It is fine that they support Zelaya’s return but by force is not the way to proceed,” she said.
“When Mr Zelaya was sent into exile, it was precisely to avoid what you are seeing now, disturbances directed by him,” Ms Alvarado told BBC Mundo.
Speaking in New York, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva repeated his position that a “negotiated and democratic solution” must be found.
He urged Mr Zelaya to “be very careful not to allow any pretext for the coup plotters to resort to violence” - and warned Honduran authorities against trying to enter the embassy.
In addition to the curfew, airports have been shut and roadblocks set up on highways leading into Tegucigalpa.
Calls for calm
Earlier, Brazil’s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim warned that any threat to Mr Zelaya or the Brazilian embassy would be a grave breach of international law.
The European Union also called for calm, urging Mr Zelaya and the interim government to negotiate an end to the three-month crisis.
It added its voice to that of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said Mr Zelaya’s return must not lead to violence.
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